I am in need of installing an Exchange server. I am planning on installing Exchange 2007 SP1 on a Win2k8 dc.My current email addresses are being hosted by our web hosting company. Our addresses are name.I am looking for Microsoft's best practices on domain structure for this setup. Do I need my domain to be wesoldieron.org for exchange to serve mail boxes for these addresses? Do I need my exchange server to be on a public IP address on the internet or can it be a private address within my firewall? If it needs a public address should I setup a DMZ with wesoldieron.org and exchange server, and then have an internal domain as well with all my user accounts, etc.? Or will one domain (wesoldieron.org) suffice?I am planning a simple exchange environment (all roles on one server). We have about 50 email addresses currently, but will be growing.I am planning on restructuring our network infrastructure and therefore can create any domains necessary to make this work.Thanks in advance, Dennis RobareMCSA Win2003@wesoldieron.org

The domain names that Exchange users have (i.e. user@domain.com) can be entirely separate to the Active Directory domain name, so no worries there. You should definitely put your Exchange server behind the firewall and use a private IP address on it. You could consider deploying an Exchange 2007 Edge Transport server in a perimeter network, but that's optional.Neil Hobson, Exchange MVP

hi,you dont need to be your organization name wesoldieon.org...after installing your domain (domain name doesnt contain underscore, for example : we_soldieron.org) you can install exchange on it. then you can create email address policy for your real domain.create an accepted domain for your real dns name (wesoldieron.org)route your mx records to your real ip address (your hosting company can do this for you)on dmz area you can install exchange server edge transport role for security. edge transport server role can not be a member of the domain.install exchange server 2007 on dedicated server (member server). not on domain controller.and please look at here for detailed information about installing exchange server 2007 on Windows server 2008 ;http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/migration-deployment/installing-exchange-2007-windows-server-2008.htmlregards,Mumin CICEK | Exchange - MVP | www.cozumpark.com | www.mumincicek.com

Hi Dennis, I think that the previous post answered your question. Would you please let me know whether you have any further questions?Mike